Windpower ... practical suggestions needed?

Question

The Canadian province in which I live is looking at generating more and more power through wind turbines. Two large "wind farms" already have been set up. My question is this: what happens when the wind doesn't blow?

What options are there to generate huge volumes of power on very short notice.

Answer 1

Hopefully your Canadian Province has done enough studies on potential sites for wind farms. If they did there research well they should have found sites where the wind blows the most. When there is no wind on those certain days, it may not be running. This is why natural gas powered electric or other forms of electric are still needed as a balance incase there isnt a windy day. Water power is also another clean way of doing so incase you want to be environmentally friendly.

Answer 2

Electricity from wind power can be stored and used when the wind doesn't blow. If you have enough of those cute little 3 bladed windmills you can use only as many as you need at a particular time and shut down others. As with solar panels, you should be able to put excess energy  back into the system where it can be used elsewhere in exchange for someone else's excess power when you need it. It works and is a good thing as well as being cleaner and far less expensive.

Answer 3

Well quite simply, when the wind doesnt blow you arent going to get any power.

You have got to hope that you have enough stored in batteries from when the wind was blowing.

But really the people who build these wind farms arent slackers, they arent going to waste time and money putting a wind turbine in a location where theres going to be no wind.

They do wind profiles for certain places at certain altitudes to make sure they are putting these things in the right spots.

Also, places where power is mainly generated from wind also have supplemental sources of power like solar.

I dont believe any place yet is operating 100% on wind, its just a small portion with the majority coming from conventional power generation methods like burning gas, etc.

Answer 4

When the wind doesn't blow, other generators are cranked up to make up the difference.  But when the wind is blowing, you need to run them less or not at all.

Weather forecasts can predict wind generation profiles pretty well, so you wouldn't need generation on short notice; you'd have hours of time to prepare.  Hydroelectric plants are the best complement to wind generation because they can go from zero to full in a few minutes; gas turbines are the second-best option.

Answer 5

Your question is kinda like asking what will happen when a coal or nuclear plant is shut down for repair.    Wind farms aren't cheap; a 5mw turbine costs around $5 million plus.   They aren't going to place them in areas that are only windy once in awhile.   I was in an area for three months where there were many wind turbines and it was only not windy for a couple hours during that time.    It was windy in other areas of the country, so they just sent the power over to where I was and everything was fine.